


Home Again

by thesometimeswarrior



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Aftermath of trauma, Angst with a Hopeful Ending, Canon Compliant, Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Ficlet, Gen, Post-Canon, Prison, aftermath of war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-18 04:27:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29728323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: Hama doesn’t turn to face her as Katara approaches her cell. “I wondered how long it would take you to find your way back to me.”“How’d you know I’d come?”Hama smirks. “A lone Southern Waterbender, in desperate search of her heritage? You’d been looking for me your entire life. Even if you didn’t like what you saw when you finally found me, it was only a matter of time before you came crawling back like a penguin-crab.”Katara and Hama, after the War.
Relationships: Hama & Katara (Avatar)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 38
Collections: Purimgifts 2021





	Home Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [autobotscoutriella](https://archiveofourown.org/users/autobotscoutriella/gifts).



Katara wouldn’t call the prison she finds when she enters the building by any means _pleasant_ , but it is at least humane, clean--a far cry from her own experience of a Fire Nation prison, or from the picture of the rat-infested torture chamber painted for her of the earlier days of the War.

Hama doesn’t turn to face her as Katara approaches her cell. “I wondered how long it would take you to find your way back to me.”

“How’d you know I’d come?”

Hama smirks. “A lone Southern Waterbender, in desperate search of her heritage? You’d been looking for me your entire life. Even if you didn’t like what you saw when you finally found me, it was only a matter of time before you came crawling back like a penguin-crab.”

“I wasn’t looking for _you_.”

“No? You were looking for what it meant to be a Southern Water Tribe Waterbender. And you found it.” Hama lips form a sardonic grin as she finally turns to face Katara. “Like it or not, this is what our culture has had to become because of the Fire Nation. Whatever we might have been in the past, now this is who we _are_ , Katara.”

“I don’t believe that.”

“Then you’re lying to yourself! And the sooner you can learn to accept that, the sooner you can destroy all of them and use what power the Spirits have granted us to destroy the Fire Nation and end this War!”

“There’s no need. The—”

“How can you _say_ that?!” Hama snarls. “After everything they took from us?! When you have the power to stop them, you want to lie down and let them keep decimating—”

“No, that’s not what I…” Katara stops, the sighs. When she utters her next words, her voice is more defeated than she expects. “The War’s over.”

Hama seems to misinterpret her tone, and her own voice shifts from taunting to something altogether more earnest, but with the same force behind it. “You musn’t give up! You’re a Waterbender, and we—”

“No, we _won_.”

Hama blinks. “I see.”

“And,” Katara straightens her back. “I didn’t give up. I’d _never_ give up—not on our people, and not on anyone else who needs me. But I don’t think we have to do the things you did in order to be strong. I don’t think that’s who we are, not really. And if it is...if that’s who the Fire Nation made us, then we can _change_. I’m going to make sure it’s not who we grow to be.”

“So is that why you’re here? To give a speech about how I and the history I represent will be obsolete in this new world you’re going to create?”

“No. I’m here because I’m bringing you home.”

“ _What_?” Hama rasps, eyes wide.

“I’ve spoken to Zuk—I mean, the new Fire Lord, and it’s all arranged. You’ll still be held accountable for everything you’ve done, but you’ve been stuck in a strange land for long enough. You’ll face Water Tribe justice, and it will be a Water Tribe tribunal that decides what that means.”

“I will return to the Southern Water Tribe?” Her voice is incredulous.

“We’ll go to the North first. They agreed to—”

“The North did nothing while we were decimated!”

“I know,” Katara admits. “And they’re trying to make it right now. But you’ll only be there temporarily. Their infrastructure wasn’t damaged quite as badly as ours was. And a delegation will come from the South for your trial. Once they reach a verdict and have time to prepare, yes, we’ll go back to the South.”

Hama leans against the wall of her cell, flits her glassy eyes away. “Thank you,” she whispers.

Katara nods, face breaking into a small smile despite herself. “I hope that someday, you’ll see that you don’t have to be what they made you.”

Hama’s eyes once again meet hers. “Perhaps.”

**Author's Note:**

> _Sunset over a Glacier_
> 
> \--
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! Chag Purim Sameach! (Happy Purim!)


End file.
